Inception

In May 2018, my wife Shalini and I visited our son Rahul when he was studying at Tufts University, Boston. We had the opportunity to meet Dr. Kevin Oye, the Executive Director of the Tufts Gordon Institute and Director, M.S. of the Innovation and Management Program at Tufts.

His humility and energy swept us off our feet. Here was a man with more than 35 years of experience in leading product development, corporate strategy, and merger and acquisition teams.

As a board member, company officer, executive, and engineer, Kevin has led initiatives where new products and technologies have driven industry transformations in both startups and large corporations.

I had a long chat with Kevin on topics ranging from law, the comparison of Indian and American legal systems, international politics, to the functioning of the Indian Government. At the time, Kevin suggested that I put my years of legal experience and knowledge to work in a blog on contemporary legal issues.

When I met Kevin again in May 2019 at Rahul’s Graduation, he asked me again whether I had followed up on the blog. I was so impressed by his memory and enthusiasm — this busy Professor and Director remembered a chance remark during a conversation that had taken place over a year ago!

This year, the COVID19 pandemic has brought the world to a halt. Our family had imposed social distancing well before the national lockdown was declared by closing our legal office,instructing Advocate Assistants & office staff working with us to stop attending Court and office from as early as March 17th itself.

We are privileged to be able to spend this quarantine time indulging in cooking, spring cleaning, reading and exploring new music and pop culture. But over the past few weeks, I have constantly felt Kevin’s wise suggestion nudge at me, and decided to test this new venture, my blog “LawfulTalks.net”

It is not easy to start and maintain a consistent blog, research volumes of legal material for articles, and craft essays. I would certainly not have been able to start my blog without the support of my brilliant and eloquent wife Shalini Chavan, also a practicing family court lawyer.

Shalini’s experience in journalism, writing, and editing has been invaluable to me in the past, and she has promised to edit all my future blogposts. And of course, I also want to thank my daughter Amrita Moon Chavan, who lives in Canada but is spending quality time with us in Mumbai during this quarantine. A great writer herself, Amrita Moon has always been my guiding star when it comes to writing.

I believe that my experience, as well as the knowledge of renowned legal minds, will benefit curious young law students, lawyers of all ages, judges, legislators, media persons & of course the general public. Let’s see how the journey goes. See you at regular intervals!